Question on Tuning for Joe Krupa & others...

H

HovisKM

NRA Life Member
Joe,

I think everyone here really appreciates your posts and the manner in which you answer questions or give your opinions in a understandable manner.

There many questions when it comes to tuning a rifle but for this thread, would you please explain what you looking for or at on a target when it pertains to the size of the holes that the bullet cuts in the paper, the color of the ring around the bullet and touch a little on how a group should form on the target.

You opinions would be greatly appreciated. The reason I am asking this is simple, I was shooting next to Mr. Costa at the Hog Roast, and about the second group on Sunday, he made a comment to Lee H. and I that he was going to go back to tuning by looking at the target instead of tuning by atomspheric conditions/changes that he'd been doing lately. Joe, you are very good at this and would like for you to expound on it. I think a lot of people get wrapped around the axle saying "If it isn't proven by science, then it has no weight or value". But I find it really funny that the best in this game don't use science to try to shoot better, they use what they see. I have been trying different things over the last couple of years and the only thing that has been consisant is my lower and lower placings. Basically, complicating the simple.

Hovis

Hovis
 
To properly answer this would take an entire book....

... which Mr. Boyer is coming out with this year. Larry Costa had some significant input into the writing of that book. Larry is an engineer and has measured and graphed everything that he could in this sport. His comment explains the difference between a scientist and a competitor. We have a very limited means to measure everything in this sport. And there are only so many variables that impact how a bullet travels into a group.

I believe that there are things that we can't measure that affect how a gun shoots. When we are in the middle of a "gun fight" at these matches, we tend to grab onto things that may or may not help us. My observation and experiences lead me to believe that reading the target (that is how the group forms, where it forms, how the bullet path is affected by the wind, and the size and color of the bullet hole) is the most reliable way to determine how to tune and what to go to during the match. Where to go and what to change to once we see that information is a matter of what your experince shooting with your own process and system. That sounds like a cop-out, but that is what I truly believe.

Jack Neary has been giving some excellent sessions on this very thing at the Eastern Region matches. I learned quite a bit from listening to Jack at Fairchance.

What you're asking is the very essence of competitive benchrest today and how this is interpeted needs to be reconciled with your own experience base. That comes (without sounding like a parrot) with putting rounds downrange.

I'll give some thought over the weekend and may post something that can give some shooters something to start from. But, please take everything that I write (as well as what others say or you read) and compare and combine it with what you are seeing in your range time. It may be too long for a post, but I would be happy to share it with anyone willing to listen.

Don't forsake what you witness in your own shooting for what something someone else tells you. The best teacher is your own experience. One of my favorite quotes (the author escapes me) is: Some people live IN the world, others simply live ON it.
 
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Joe,

Please feel free to make as long as post as you want. I do plan on catching all of Jack class. (I caught some of it at Fairchance). I would like to get his permission to tape it so I can show it at my range when it's done. Thats also part of what I am doing here asking questions. I want to make up a cheat sheet of sorts for beginners at the range. Hopefully help shorten their learning curve some and mine also.

I don't know but I think I've figured out my popped shots. A couple of things both you and Jack told me kind of clicked. I'll find out next week...Mothers Day has this weekend taken up....her son and I are going to surprise her by taking her to Kings Island and the Dayton Air Force Museum. And if she's real good, might even buy her a gun......

Hovis
 
That was an excellent post, Joe. Hovis, are you going to get her a gun at Dayton? If so, go for the GAU-8...SWEET! Tim
 
Tim,

Yeah...wonder if they have any extras laying around. I did get to fire the trailer mounted vulcan just before they were decommisioned.....wow...don't quite describe it.

Hovis
 
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